\ ..  -  J; 


irs 


•  • 


I-' 


MISSION 


FOR  U<3E  in 


YOUriO- PEOPLES -SOGIETIES 


No.  12 

ORIGIN  OF  THE 
AITERICAN  BAPTIST 
MISSIONARY  UNION 


PREPARED  ANt> PUBLISHED 
UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE  • '  • 

ffllffl  iPTBT  HMIRY  OM 

B05TON 


*1 

/  -- 

*  '-PRICE'  3 

2 


As  it  was  in  1814  when  the  Missionary  Union  was  formed. 


Origin  of  the  American  Baptist 
Missionary  Union. 


r>v  rf.v.  ]. 


W.  A.  .Stkwart,  D. 


D. 


Q/u'S.  I.  Jl-7ur/  iJic  first  inipuhc  to  the  organization  of  tJie  American 

Baptist  Missionary  Union  ? 

A  ns.  Tlic  immediate  occasion  of  the  organization  of  American  Baptists  for 
tlie  work  of  foreinn  missions  was  the  news  tliat  came  to  them  from  India  to  tlic 

o 

effect  tliat  Adoniram  Judson  liad,  during  his  voyage  from  America  to  Asia, 
chaimed  his  convictions  as  to 

O 

the  proper  subjects  and  mode 
of  Christian  baptism  and  the 
constitution  of  a  Cliristian 
church  ;  that  he  had  l)een 
l)aptized  in  Calcutta,  and  was 
ready  to  engage  in  missionary 
work  as  the  agent  of  Ameri¬ 
can  Baptists.  It  is  evident, 
liowever,  that  the  Baptists  in 
America  must  have  been  all 
ready  for  such  an  organization, 
and  only  awaited  the  occasion 
which  should  make  manifest 
and  throw  into  definite  form 
the  thoughts  and  the  spirit 
which  were  moving  amongst 
them.  If  no  moisture  were 
held  in  suspense  in  the  atmos- 
jdiere,  not  even  the  setting  of 
the  sun  and  the  sudden  cool- 
iimof  the  earth’s  surface  could 
cause  dew  to  fall.  If  the  missionary  spirit  had  not  already  been  abroad,  not 
even  the  news  about  Judson’s  baptism  and  his  offer  of  service  could  have  so  sud¬ 
denly  brought  American  Baptists  together  in  foreign  missionary  enterprise. 

2.  J  17/at  is  the  primary  source  of  the  missionary  movement  ? 

A  ns.  The  gospel  of  Christ  and  the  working  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  No  external 
influences  or  worldly  considerations  would  ever,  apart  from  the  divine  working 
on  the  souls  of  men,  move  them  to  missionary  enterprise.  Of  missions,  God  Him¬ 
self  is  the  primal  source.  Christianity,  the  gift  to  man  of  Christ  and  of  the  I  Toly 


WILLIA.M  CAREY. 


3 


4 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION. 


Spirit,  is  God’s  missionary  enterprise.  Christianity  is  saturated  through  and 
through  with  the  missionary  spirit.  You  cannot  pierce  the  human  l^ody  with 
even  the  point  of  a  pin  without  coming  upon  the  hlood,  neither  can  you  touch 
Christianity  at  any  point  without  finding  the  spirit  of  missions.  If  Christ  is  in 
men,  inevitably  their  thoughts  and  longings  will  go  forth  to  their  fellow-men  in 
all  the  world.  Christianity  knows  no  national  boundaries.  “  I  am  debtor  both  to 
Greeks  and  Barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and  to  the  foolish,”  is  the  voice  of  Christ, 
as  lie  finds  Ilis  home  within  a  human  personality,  and  brings  it  under  Ilis  sway. 
So  the  original  source  of  this  movement  among  American  Baptists  was  the  fact 
that  they  were  Christians,  and  that  in  them  the  Master’s  spirit  was  making  itself  felt. 

3.  N^cime  a  secondary  source. 

Ans.  On  Oct.  2,  1792,  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  of  England  was 

organized  at  Kettering;  in  June,  1793, 
Mhlliam  Carey  sailed  for  India.  Twenty 
years  after  this,  on  Feb.  19,  1812,  Judson 
sailed  from  America.  Whether  we  are  to 
regard  the  thought  of  foreign  missions  as 
having  sprung  up  spontaneously  in  America, 
or  as  having  been  transplanted  from  Eng¬ 
land,  I  cannot  say,  but  we  know  that  it  is  the 
same  Holy  Spirit  who  is  everywhere  in  the 
church,  and  when  He  is  working  in  a  certain 
way  in  one  part  of  the  church.  He  is  very 
likely  to  be  working  in  the  same  way  in  other 
parts,  so  that  in  different  minds,  far  removed 
from  one  another,  the  same  thoughts  and 
purposes  may  spring  up  as  if  spontaneously. 
If  the  movement  was  spontaneous  in  x^mer- 
ica,  it  was,  at  least,  much  influenced  and  encouraged  by  the  English  example. 

4.  IV/io  was  one  of  tJie  principal  founders  of  the  Union  ? 

Ans.  The  Rev.  William  Staughton,  a  Baptist  minister,  born  at  Coventry, 
England,  and  educated  at  Bristol,  was  present  at  the  formation  of  the  society  at 
Kettering,  in  1792.  The  following  year  he  emigrated  to  America,  and  after 
laboring  in  several  different  places,  he  became,  in  1805,  pastor  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church  in  Philadelphia,  and  afterward  of  the  Sanson  Street  Church  in 
the  same  city.  He  was  a  man  of  marked  ability  and  great  influence.  It  was 
impossible,  after  having  witnessed  what  he  did  at  Kettering,  for  him  to  come  to 
America  without  bringing  with  him,  and  scattering  in  his  adopted  country,  some 
seeds  of  missionary  thought  and  spirit.  Moreover,  after  settling  in  America,  he 
maintained  a  correspondence  with  Fuller,  Ryland,  and  other  members  of  the 
English  society,  and  they  kept  him  stirred  up  about  foreign  missions,  and  he,  in 
turn,  imparted  the  inspiration  to  his  brethren  on  this  side  of  the  .\tlantic. 


ANDREW  FULLER. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION. 


5 


5.  Give  another  source  of  the  missionary  inspiration. 

Ans.  In  the  early  years  of  English  missions,  the  missionaries  were  prohibited 
from  sailing  on  the  East  India  Company’s  vessels,  and  a  number  of  them  had 
first  to  sail  for  America,  and  then  to  embark  on  American  ships  for  the  East. 
W  as  it  possible  for  them  to  land  on  the  American  shore  and  not  scatter  a  little 

of  the  good  seed  before  they  sailed  from  it?  The  home  of  Dr.  Staughton  and 

% 

other  Christian  homes  were  always  open  to  them  during  their  sojourn  here.  Rev. 
William  R.  Williams,  D.  D.,  of  New  York  City,  then  a  boy,  remembered  that 
some  of  those  missionaries  stayed  at  the  parsonage  of  the  Oliver  Street  Baptist 


ADONIRAM  AND  ANN  HASSELTINE  JUDSON. 


Church,  of  which  his  father,  the  Rev.  John  Williams,  was  pastor.  And,  says 
Dr.  Francis  Wayland,  “  I  well  remember,  in  my  boyhood,  the  temporary  resi¬ 
dence  of  such  missionaries  in  New  York,  and  the  deep  interest  which  their 
presence  occasioned  in  all  the  churches  in  that  city.” 

6.  What  had  American  Baptists  done  for  foreign  missions  before  the  form  a- 
tion  of  the  Union  ? 

Ans.  Baptists  in  America  became  interested  in  the  work  of  Carey  and  his 


6 


ORIC.IX  OF  T}IF  AMFKICAX  HAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION. 


colal)orers  in  India,  and  became  contributors  to  the  support  of  that  work.  Robert 
Ralston,  of  Philadelphia,  was  made  the  almoner  of  these  American  contributions, 
and  in  the  years  i8o6  and  1807,  he  sent  to  India  about  $6,000.  Dr.  Johns,  an 
English  Baptist  missionary,  going  by  way  of  America,  and  who  sailed  on  the 
same  vessel  with  Luther  Rice,  in  1812,  collected,  during  his  stay  here  in  Boston 
and  Salem,  $5,000  for  the  work.  William  Carey  wrote  to  the  Rev.  John 
Williams,  of  New  York:  “The  Lord  has  wonderfully  stirred  up  the  whole  relig¬ 
ious  world  of  every  denomination 
to  favor  the  work  in  which  we 
are  engaged,  and  to  contribute 
pecuniary  assistance  to  a  large 
amount.  Our  American  friends 
have  a  special  claim  upon  our 
gratitude  in  this  respect.” 

7.  What  pi'eliminary  societies 
had  been  formed  ? 

.Ins.  “As  early  as  1804, 
Female  Mite  Societies  and  Cent 
Societies  began  to  be  organized 
in  the  principal  American  towns. 
In  many  instances  the  incomes  of 
these  societies  were  devoted  to 
foreign  missions.”  Further  still, 
“  The  Massachusetts  Baptist  Mis¬ 
sionary  Society  was  organized  in 
1802.”  It  was  chiefly  for  home 
mission  purposes,  but  it  regarded 
foreign  mission  work  as  a  possible 
event.  It  published  a  missionary 
magazine,  and  in  this  magazine, 
which  had  a  wide  circulation, 
were  letters  from  Carey,  Fuller, 
and  Ryland,  along  with  general 
missionary  intelligence  from 
India.  Here,  then,  was  a  condition  of  things  all  ready  for  missionary  enterprise. 
Indeed,  before  Judson’s  day,  by  way  of  helping  their  English  brethren,  the 
American  Baptists,  not  as  a  body,  but  as  individuals,  were  already  engaged  in 
foreign  missions.  The  great  thing  which  Judson’s  course  led  to  was  suddenly 
to  bring  them  together,  to  consolidate  and  organize  them  for  this  work,  and  to 
make  them  responsible  for  a  mission  of  their  own. 

8.  JVhat  relation  to  the  formation  of  the  Union  was  borne  by  .idoniram  yiidsond 
Ans.  In  the  latter  part  of  1809,  we  find  him  a  theological  student  at  Andover, 


HAVSTACK  MONUMENT,  WILLI AMSTOWN,  MASS. 


OKICIX  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION. 


7 


Mass.,  seriously  pondering  the  subject  of  foreign  missions.  Soon  after  there 
came  to  Andover  four  young  men  of  similar  aspirations.  They  came  from 
Williams  College,  where  they  had  formed  a  missionary  society,  and  where  they 
were  accustomed  to  meet  at  night  beside  a  hay-stack  near  the  college  grounds. 
At  Williamstown,  on  the  spot  where  now  stands  the  famous  Hay-stack  Monu¬ 
ment,  these  young  men  consecrated  themselves  to  the  work  of  foreign  missions. 
“  This  green  nook  among  the  Berkshire  Hills  may  well  be  called  the  birthplace 
of  American  foreign  missions.”  On  consultation  with  the  Andover  professors, 
among  them  Prof.  Moses  Stuart,  they  addressed  a  letter  to  the  general  associa¬ 
tion  representing  the  Congregational  churches  of  Massachusetts,  which  convened 
June  27,  1810.  The  immediate  result  of  their  letter  was  the  formation  of  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  which  has  had  such  a 
noble  record.  Passing  over  the  intervening  year  and  a  half,  during  which  time 
Judson  visited  England  to  consult  with  the  officers  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society,  we  find  him  on  Feb.  19,  1812,  in  company  with  his  young  wife  and  their 
fellow'-missionaries,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Newell,  embarking  at  Salem,  Mass.,  on  the 
brig  Caravan  bound  for  Calcutta,  as  a  missionary  of  the  American  Board. 
He  was  about  to  attempt  the  formation  of  Christian  churches  among  the  heathen  ; 
how  should  these  churches  be  constituted?  “Again,  Mr.  Judson  expected  to 
meet  in  India  the  English  Baptist  missionaries,  Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward. 
Controversy  with  them  might  possibly  arise.  He  thought  it  best,  while  he  was 
on  the  ocean,  to  arm  himself  beforehand  for  the  encounter  with  these  formidable 
champions  in  order,  successfully,  to  maintain  the  Pedobaptist  position.  The 
result  of  his  investigation  was  the  conclusion,  reluctantly  formed,  that  he  was 
wrong  and  that  the  Baptists  were  right.”  It  is  not  easy  for  us  to  realize  what 
it  cost  him  to  yield  to  this  conviction.  But  yield  he  did,  and  his  wife 
yielded  with  him  ;  and  after  arriving  in  India  they  were  baptized  in  Calcutta 
by  Mr.  Ward,  Sept.  6,  1812.  Judson  wrote  at  once  to  the  American 
Board,  announcing  his  change  of  denominational  convictions,  and  at  the  same 
time  he  wrote  to  Rev.  Thomas  Baldwin,  D.D.,  a  prominent  Baptist  minister 
of  Boston,  to  whom  he  said:  “Should  there  be  formed  a  Baptist  society  for 
the  support  of  a  mission  in  these  parts,  I  should  be  ready  to  consider  myself 
their  missionary.” 

9.  What  was  the  condition  of  American  Baptists  at  that  time  ? 

.Ins.  The  missionary  spirit  was  abroad  amongst  them.  But  let  us  not  ex- 
aggerate  their  preparedness  or  their  strength.  “  In  1812,  the  Baptists  of  America 
were  a  scattered  and  feeble  folk  and  lacked  solidarity.  There  was  little  or  no 
denominational  spirit.  The  summons  to  the  foreign  field  shook  them  together. 
Mr.  Judson’s  words,  ‘  Should  there  be  formed  a  Baptist  society  for  the  support 
of  amission  in  these  parts,  I  should  be  ready  to  consider  myself  their  missionary,’ 
proved  to  be  the  crystallizing  touch.”  It  was  their  entrance  upon  the  work  of 
foreign  missions  which  really  made  the  denomination  here  in  America.  Such 


8 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION. 


were  the  sources  from  which  has  grown  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union 
as  we  have  it  to-day. 

lo.  What  was  the  relation  of  Luther  Rice  to  the  organization  of  the  Union  ? 

A  ns.  One  of  the  young  men  who  formed  that  little  missionary  society  at 
Williams  College,  which  used  to  meet  under  a  hay-stack,  and  who  went  thence 
to  Andover,  and  was  there  associated  with  Judson,  was  Luther  Rice.  He  set 
sail  for  India,  by  appointment  of  the  American  Board,  from  Philadelphia,  the 
day  before  Judson  sailed  for  Salem.  Strange  to  tell,  without  knowing  what  was 
going  on  in  Judson’s  mind,  he  too  experienced  a  change  in  his  convictions  during 
the  voyage,  and  not  long  after  the  baptism  of  the  Judsons  he  also  was  baptized 
by  Mr.  Ward.  We  can  well  believe  that  when  the  tidings  reached  America  that 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Judson 
and  Mr.  Rice  had  been 
immersed  at  Calcutta, 
the  Baptists  of  the 
whole  land  were  filled 
with  a  glad  surprise. 
God  had  suddenly 
placed  at  their  disposal 
three  fully  equipped 
missionaries.  They 
were  already  on  the 
field,  and  action  must 
be  prompt. 

1 1 .  IVhat  was  the 
first  American  Baptist 
fore  ig  n  m  issionary 
society  ? 

Ans.  As  soon  as  Dr. 
Baldwin  heard  from 
Mr,  Judson,  he  invited 
a  number  of  leading 
Baptist  ministers  o  f 
Massachusetts  to  meet 
at  his  house  for  delib¬ 
eration.  These  formed 
a  society,  and  at  once 
wrote  to  Judson,  as¬ 
suring  him  that  the  American  churches  would  assume  his  support  as  their  mis¬ 
sionary.  The  society  formed  was  not  national,  but  local.  Meanwhile  Mr.  Rice 
was  on  his  way  back  to  America  to  preach  a  missionary  crusade.  He  arrived  in 
September,  1814,  and  after  conference  with  the  newly  organized  society,  in 


REV.  WILLIAM  STAUGHTON,  D.D., 

First  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Missionary  Union. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION. 


9 


Boston,  he  was  requested  to  go  through  the  land,  to  visit  associations,  to  or¬ 
ganize  local  societies,  and  in  every  way  to  rouse  the  Baptists  to  a  sense  of  their 
opportunity.  He  traveled  north  and  south  on  this  mission,  and  everywhere 
evoked  great  enthusiasm. 

12.  IVhen  and  where  tvas  the  Missionary  Union  formed? 

Ans.  It  was  soon  resolved  to  form  a  national  society.  May  i8,  1814,  was 
fixed  upon  as  the  date  for  meeting,  and  Philadelphia  as  the  place.  Delegates 
were  appointed  in  eleven  States,  and  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Thirty-three 
of  them  came  together.  Strong  men  were  there, —  Baldwin,  Bolles,  Gano,  Wil¬ 
liams,  Staughton,  Jones,  Brown,  Rice,  Semple,  Furman,  Tallmage,  Johnson, 
and  others.  The  meeting  was  like  that  meeting  at  Antioch,  at  which  Paul  and 
Barnabas  were  set  apart  for  missionary  work.  The  American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union  was  born  and  cradled  amid  preaching  and  prayer  and  solemn  consecration. 
On  the  fourth  day  of  the  meeting.  May  21,  1814,  a  constitution  was  adopted. 
The  second  article  provided  that  the  convention  should  meet  once  in  three  years, 
and  thence  it  came  to  be  known  as  “  The  Triennial  Convention.” 

13.  JVhat  toork  was  jointed  tvith  foreign  missions  at  first? 

Ans.  It  was  attempted  for  a  time  to  combine  the  work  of  ministerial  educa¬ 
tion  in  America  with  the  work  of  foreign  missions.  At  the  first  triennial  session 
of  the  convention  the  constitution  was  amended,  so  as  to  allow  the  undertak¬ 
ing  of  this  work.  As  a  result  of  this,  what  is  now  Columbian  University,  in  the 
city  of  Washington,  was  established.  But  it  soon  became  manifest  that  the  work 
of  education  at  home  and  the  work  of  missions  abroad  could  not  well  be  con¬ 
ducted  under  one  management,  and  at  the  fourth  triennial  meeting  the  connec¬ 
tion  with  Columbian  College  was  dissolved,  and  the  exertions  of  the  convention 
were  limited  to  missionary  enterprise.  It  is  interesting,  however,  to  notice  how 
closely  the  cause  of  education  and  the  cause  of  missions  were  connected  in  the 
minds  of  those  good  and  earnest  men,  and  how  they  realized  that  men  going  to 
the  foreign  field  should  be  well  equipped  for  the  work. 

14.  What  other  change  took  place  later  ? 

A)is.  At  first  the  North  and  the  South  were  united  in  this  work.  But  this 
could  not  last.  The  great  slavery  question,  which  did  so  much  to  separate  the 
two  sections  of  the  republic,  and  which  at  last  arrayed  them  against  each  other 
in  that  awful  war,  ere  long  began  to  make  itself  felt  in  this  missionary  organiza¬ 
tion.  At  length,  in  1845,  the  Baptists  of  the  South  withdrew  from  their  Northern 
brethren  and  organized  the  Southern  Baptist  convention,  through  which  they  still 
carry  on  their  work.  In  the  same  year  the  Northern  Baptists  held  a  special 
meeting  and  took  steps  to  organize  under  the  new  conditions,  and  in  1846,  they 
commenced  operations  under  the  name  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union. 

15.  Who  was  the  first  home  representative  of  foreign  missions  ? 

.-Ins.  Rev.  Luther  Rice  never  returned  to  India,  though  he  had  fully  expected 


lO 


ORIGIN  OF  TIIK  AMKRICAN  15APTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION. 


to  do  SO.  lie  was  at  first  retained  in  America  to  travel  from  place  to  place  to 
excite  the  public  mind  more  generally  to  engage  in  missionary  exertions.  In  this 
work  he  was  eminently  successful,  and  his  relation  to  the  beginnings  of  missions 
by  the  American  Baptists  was  similar  to  that  sustained  by  Andrew  Fuller  to  the 
work  of  the  English  Baptists.  Later  on  his  brethren  appointed  him  to  collect 
funds  for  the  projected  seminary.  He  was  deeply  convinced  of  the  necessity  of 
raising  the  standard  of  education  in  the  ministry,  and  to  this  cause  he  devoted 
himself  with  untiring  energy  until  his  death. 

16.  ]Vhai  Jias  been  the  p7‘ogress  of  foreign missions  since  the  founding  of  the 
Missionaiy  Union  ? 

Ans.  Eighty  years  ago  the  Baptists  of  this  country  joined  hand  in  hand  for 
this  work.  I  wish  there  were  time  to  tell  some  of  the  things  which  these  eighty 
years  have  seen.  In  1792,  that  first  little  society  was  formed  in  England  through 
the  indomitable  earnestness  of  William  Carey.  Now  there  are  296  Protestant 
.societies  engaged  in  this  work,  and  they  occupy  22,631  stations  and  out-stations, 
and  employ  1 1 ,827  missionaries,  and  55,118  native  laborers.  There  are  about 
1,017,100  communicants  on  the  foreign  field,  and  there  is  raised  for  this  work 
about  $14,500,000  a  year.  In  the  first  year  of  organization  the  receipts  of  our 
American  society  were  $2,100.  The  second  year  they  were  more  than  $26,000. 
Now  they  are  $500,000  a  year.  And  in  these  eighty  years  $12,526,790  have 
been  raised  and  expended.  This  does  not  include  what  the  Southern  Baptists 
have  done  since  their  separation  from  the  North  in  1845. 

17.  In  xohat  countries  is  the  Union  working  ? 

Ans.  Burma  was  the  first  field  occupied  by  the  American  Baptist  missionaries. 
You  recall  the  thrilling  story  of  Adoniram  Judson’s  sufferings  and  toils  and  triumphs 
in  Burma.  To-day  the  Missionary  Union  has  its  agents  in  Burma,  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal  ;  in  Assam,  the  northeastern  province  of  India  ;  in 
the  Telugu  country  in  the  southeastern  portion  of  India,  along  the  west  of  the 
Bay  of  Bengal  ;  in  Siam  ;  in  China  ;  in  Japan  ;  on  the  Congo  in  Africa  ;  and 
also  assists  the  work  of  Baptist  missionaries  in  France,  in  Germany  and  Central 
Europe,  in  Sweden,  Norway  and  Finland,  Russia,  and  in  Spain.  The  Union 
employs  482  missionaries  from  America  and  2,766  native  workers.  On  its  field 
there  are  1,653  churches  and  190,998  communicants. 

18.  IVhat  is  the  rank  of  the  Missionary  Utiion  aino7ig  missionary  societies? 

.Ins.  It  is  a  fact,  that  our  American  Baptist  missionaries  are  wonderfully 

blessed  in  their  work.  Put  together  these  four  leading  denominations.  Congre¬ 
gational,  Presbyterian,  Methodist  Episcopal,  Protestant  Episcopal,  in  America. 
Altogether  they  have  nearly  four  times  as  many  missionaries  and  three  times  as 
many  native  helpers  as  the  Baptists,  and  yet  our  union  has  more  churches  and 
more  communicants  than  all  four  of  them  together. 

19.  Name  its  schools  for  higher  educatio7i. 

A71S.  Besides  all  this,  the  Missionary  Union  has  eight  institutions  for  higher 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION. 


I 


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k 


V. 


1 1 


education  under  its  care.  The  Theological  Seminary,  Insein,  near  Rangoon, 
Burmah  the  Rangoon  Baptist  College ;  the  Brownson  Telugu  Theological 
Seminary,  Ramapatam  ;  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  College,  Ongole  ; 
the  Biblical  School,  Shaohing,  China  ;  the  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  Yoko¬ 
hama,  Japan  ;  Bethel  Theological  Seminary,  Stockholm,  Sweden  ;  the  Baptist 
Theological  School,  Hamburg,  Germany.  Surely  it  is  a  wonderful  and  far- 
reaching  work  which  is  being  carried  on. 

20.  Whal  of  the  Union  in  this  country  ? 

A  ns.  As  to  the  work  here  in  America,  it  has  enlisted  the  sympathy  and  sup¬ 
port  of  our  strongest  and  best  people  all  over  this  land.  Our  leaders  in  the  pul¬ 
pit,  in  education,  in  the  ranks  of  business,  have  deemed  it  a  privilege  to  be 
servants  and  helpers  of  the  Missionary  Union.  Perhaps  Dr.  Francis  Wayland 
never  rendered  a  greater  service  to  the  cause  of  Christ  than  when  he  preached 
that  annual  sermon  before  the  Union  on  “The  Moral  Dignity  of  the  Missionary 
Enterprise.”  In  its  officers  and  managers  have  been  and  are  the  very  cream  of 
our  denomination.  To  be  president  of  the  Missionary  Union  is  the  highest  honor 
in  the  gift  of  the  denomination.  Men  like  Spencer  H.  Cone,  and  Francis  Way- 
land,  and  Martin  B.  Anderson  deemed  it  amongst  the  greatest  honors  of  their 
lives  to  be  its  president. 

There  has  been  handed  down  to  us,  as  American  Baptists,  this  great  inheri¬ 
tance.  Shall  we  prove  ourselves  worthy  of  it?  I  believe  we  shall.  There 
seems  to  me  to  be  stirring  amongst  us  a  new  spirit  of  consecration.  I  believe 
that,  as  a  body,  we  mean  to  go  forward  at  the  mighty  inspiring  call  of  God. 

What  a  host  of  witnesses  encompass  us  ! 

Above  all  these  is  the  Lord  Himself,  who  said,  “  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  gospel.” 


THE  NEW  TREMONT  TEMPLE. 

The  Missionary  Union  occupies  the  fifth  floor,  represented  by  the 
third  row  of  windows  front  the  top. 


